Summary Bulawayo-based writer John Eppel is gaining increased prominence and acceptance as Zimbabwe’s premier satirist, in both poetry and prose. Early critics, even fellow-poets, failed to read the coruscating and self-referential nature of that satire, and poems treating the natural world were too easily dismissed as Romantic “white” nostalgia. A closer reading reveals a subtler range of questions, exploring the relations between white or Rhodesian identity and nature (especially flowers), between satire and belonging, between seasonal ephemerality and political uncertainty, between literary allusion and sensual immediacy, poetic form and historical turbulence. Above all, many of Eppel’s plant-focused poems treat the layered and conflicting demands of memory. This article explores these questions over thirty years of Eppel’s production (from Spoils of War [1989] to Together [2011]) and through three interlocking phases or aspects: childhood, war and political transition, and post-Independence disillusionment.

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“仍然被记忆困扰”：约翰·埃佩尔的后定居者植物诗

总结 布拉瓦约作家约翰·埃佩尔 (John Eppel) 作为津巴布韦首屈一指的讽刺作家，在诗歌和散文中越来越受到重视和接受。早期的批评家，甚至是诗人同行，都未能理解这种讽刺的振奋和自我指涉的本质，处理自然世界的诗歌很容易被视为浪漫的“白色”怀旧。仔细阅读会发现一系列更微妙的问题，探索白人或罗得西亚人的身份与自然（尤其是花卉）之间、讽刺与归属感之间、季节性短暂与政治不确定性之间、文学典故与感性直接性、诗意形式与历史动荡之间的关系。最重要的是，Eppel 的许多以植物为主题的诗歌都处理了记忆的分层和相互冲突的需求。